Multi-station or progressive cold-forging machines are well known. Up to now, as far as known, the versatility of such machines has been limited, inter alia, by the number of stations available in a given machine. When a part can be cold-formed from a metal blank that is at or near the volume of the finished part, sometimes referred to as net shape or near net shape, considerable savings in material cost, machine time, and labor can be realized. There thus exists a need for machines of the nature described with improved versatility and for new methodology to advance the art of cold forming complex metal parts.